In the 1960s on grounds that the federal government lacked the power to regulate public accommodations, including hotels and restaurants, to prohibit private discrimination and to change the rules and procedures for voting. Each of those battles went to the Supreme Court, which upheld federal power.

It was also true, ultimately, for the opponents of the New Deal who, when they lost the fights in Congress, took them to the Supreme Court and won — until the court backed down in the face of being packed and off we went to decades of upholding federal power.

There was a bubble around Reagan’s time in the courts, as well, not so coincidentally, with the Rehnquist Court embracing its own version of federalism to impose limits on federal power. States as states were free of certain regulation, and limits were imposed on otherwise unlimited federal power in cases involving guns near schools and protests near abortion clinics. As always, there were debates as to whether the real moving forces in those cases were the hot button issues or the federal-state issues.

So it was probably just a matter of time before opponents of health care reform, who are as good at counting to 60 as anyone and know that the Democrats will not be counting that high again anytime soon, were bound to start talking federalism as the next step in a debate that won’t end.

I almost laughed when I heard the old quotes against HillaryCare dusted off. As someone once said, there you go again.

Regulating health care is a lot easier, in commerce clause terms, than telling the owners of a hot-dog stand in a park in the middle of nowhere who they have to serve on account of the fact that the bottle of ketchup they’re using came in as interstate commerce. That was enough for the court. I don’t hear too many people arguing that the civil rights laws are unconstitutional.